Safari Club Banquet Features Big-Game Hunts

If you've always wanted to go big-game hunting in Africa, this is your chance.

Among the live auction items at the annual Safari Club International dinner are 11 hunts donated by different outfitters all over the world including five to South Africa and one to Namibia. The dinner will be held at 5 p.m., Saturday, April 27, at Mazatzal Casino, president Austin Myers, said.

Also on the auction block will be two hunts in both Spain and Texas, and a hunt in Argentina. In addition to a total of 20 items in the silent auction; a live auction will feature artwork, guns and miscellaneous items; and a raffle will include 20 items, including six rifles.

Tickets are $140 per couple, or $105 for one person. That price includes the sit-down dinner, two raffle tickets and a one-year membership to Safari Club International. Current members receive two additional raffle tickets.

Some 80 percent of the net proceeds will go to community projects that are not related to hunting.

Among the projects the event will fund is Future Farmers of America memberships for Payson High School students, and one-week scholarships for a local teacher and student to attend the organization's wilderness-leadership school in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

"Other community projects can be submitted to the local board for consideration on a case-by-case basis," Myers said.

Last year's banquet, the group's first, netted over $15,000, and Myers says they hope to sell 200 tickets and raise $25,000 this year.